Consumer attitudes survey
Understanding your needs
Our aim at Aviva is to bring prosperity and peace of mind to our customers – through good times and bad. To be able to help them plan for their futures, we need to have a deep understanding of how our customers think and feel about financial matters. With 50 million customers in 28 countries, that's no small task! Nevertheless, it's knowledge that we're absolutely committed to getting. And, once we have this knowledge, we plan to use it to lobby and influence the policy makers so that we can get answers to the issues raised by our customers.
Our survey of Consumer Attitudes to Saving
One of the methods we employ to make sure we understand our customers is regularly asking them for their views on saving, financial planning and their priorities. Understanding consumer attitudes to saving - PDF (2.68Mb) is our latest industry-leading research into our customers' views of their financial futures. The research covers topics such as risk, savings, retirement, financial advice and much, much more.
How was the survey carried out?
Between 2004 and 2008, we surveyed more than 100,000 people from 25 countries. Of course, there are many areas where customers think differently because of cultural, economic and geographical differences. But there are also plenty of areas where customers around the world share very similar attitudes – things like saving enough for retirement, worries about financial security and aversion to higher levels of risk.
Read the survey
We've published the main conclusions from this five-year study, highlighting trends and exploring the ways in which all of us could change our approach to financial matters for the better. To find out more, why not download the Understanding consumer attitudes to saving survey - PDF (2.68Mb).
Academic responses to our report
In order to help Aviva gauge reactions to this five year body of work, we commissioned Professor Christopher O'Brien and Professor Ilian Mihov and Dr Krastev to further explore consumers' perceptions to saving and in particular their appetite to risk taking.
The essays, entitled 'The Role of Risk in Society' and 'Is it Tomorrow, Yet? Anxiety and Saving in a Risk Society' consider the key findings from the Understanding Consumer Attitudes to Saving 2004-2008 Report in the context of wider, societal trends.
These essays represent the views of third parties and Aviva is not responsible for the content.
- Read Professor O'Brien's essay: The Role of Risk in Society (PDF 73Kb)
- Read Professor Mihov and Dr Krastev's essay: 'Is it Tomorrow, Yet? Anxiety and Saving in a Risk Society' (PDF 220Kb)
About the essay authors
Professor Christopher O'Brien
Professor Christopher O'Brien is a Director of Risk and Insurance Studies at the Nottingham University Business School. His research interests include accounting standards and practices in insurance and pensions; actuarial methods and the management of insurance organisations; performance measurement and distribution of surplus in insurance companies; regulation of and risk management in insurance companies; genetics and insurance; annuities and mortality risk. Professor O'Brien is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries; an Associate of the Society of Actuaries and a Member of Chartered Insurance Institute.
Read more about Professor O'Brien
Professor Ilian Mihov
Ilian Mihov is a professor of Economics and the Novartis Chaired Professor of Management and Environment at INSEAD, one of the world's leading and largest graduate business schools, in France and Singapore. His research areas include macroeconomics, monetary economics, econometrics, and international economics. Professor Mihov is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research. He is also a Research Professor at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin).
Read more about Professor Mihov
Dr Ivan Krastev
Dr Ivan Krastev is a political scientist and Chair of Board of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria. Since 2004, Dr Krastev has been the executive director of the International Commission on the Balkans, which is chaired by Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato. In 2006, he was awarded membership in the Forum of Young Global Leaders, a partner organization of the World Economic Forum.